In research and development of maize and other monocots, the manual extraction of embryos is most often still employed. Standard practice for the excision of maize immature embryos involves manual hand extraction, one embryo at a time. More specifically, the kernel cap is cut and removed to expose the endosperm tissue. A small instrument such as a metal scalpel is employed to move aside endosperm tissue and thus make the corn embryo visible and accessible for removal from the kernel. This is a slow process requiring considerable hand-eye coordination and dexterity in order to excise fully viable embryos. There have been some moves toward mechanization of this embryo extraction process by use of a suction device, which is used to individually suction the embryo from each seed. Mechanization of the process has been stymied by the fragility of maize embryos. One attempt to automate the embryo excision process is described in Monsanto U.S. Pat. No. 7,150,993, which discloses the use of a vacuum to excise immature maize embryos from each of the individual kernels with a vacuum aspirator. Although this system is adapted to slightly increase the speed of embryo excision beyond speed of scalpel driven manual labor, it is still an excessively slow and tedious excision process. There remains a need for a faster and more efficient method of excising embryos in a manner that produces little damage to the embryo.